4) Review: On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
5) Workers in Turkey fight economic catastrophe
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
6) Zapatistas march for Indigenous rights
by "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 1. maaliskuu 2001 13:15
Subject: [WW] Review: On a Move: The Story of Mumia Abu-Jamal
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Book review:
ON A MOVE: THE STORY OF MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
"On a Move: The Story of Mumia
Abu-Jamal" by Terry Bisson, Plough Publishing, 240 pages,
$12.
By Monica Moorehead
'Mumia's story is an American tragedy--not just for him, but
all across the board. It is the story of other
revolutionaries tucked away behind prison walls, of the
powder-kegged ground we stand on, and the robotic-minded
time we live in, when human beings are often treated with
less respect than diamond-studded watches or cars.
"It reminds us that we cannot keep our heads 'wide shut'
forever, that we can no longer deny the fact that the
structures around us and beneath us are rotten from the core
and crumbling fast.
"Finally, it reminds us that though actions speak louder
than words, words in the right place speak louder than
bombs."
These words are part of an inspiring foreword written by
Chuck D for a newly released book on the life of African
American political prisoner and award-winning journalist
Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Chuck D, an original member of the progressive rap group
Public Enemy, visited Abu-Jamal in September on death row at
the remote SCI Greene Unit located on the Pennsylvania and
West Virginia border.
This new biography, "On a Move," was written by Terry
Bisson, a progressive white author of short stories, science-
fiction novels and a biography of Nat Turner, the martyred
African American slave who lead a heroic rebellion in
Northampton, Va., against slavery in 1831. Abu-Jamal asked
the author to write a biography of his life after he read a
Village Voice article by Bisson on Michael Stewart, a Black
graffiti artist murdered by New York cops in the early
1980s.
A POPULAR, EASY-TO-READ BOOK
"On a Move" is a must-read, especially for people who are
not day-by-day political activists. So many people have
heard or seen Abu-Jamal's name associated with being a "cop
killer" in the mainstream media. "On a Move" is a book that
can help the people get to know who the real Abu-Jamal is in
a popular, down-to-earth manner.
"On a Move" also explains how resistance to racist
repression helped to shape the remarkable life of this
dedicated revolutionary. The language that Bisson uses is
very powerful because the words are punchy and to the point.
The book can be read in a day, not only because the type is
large but also because the imagery he uses is so vivid and
colorful. In fact, the lack of words is even more effective
than if he wrote whole soliloquies.
Bisson opens the book by using sweeping language describing
the historical and social bases that helped to shape Abu-
Jamal's life and those of millions like him--beginning when
Africans were forced to endure the unspeakable horrors of
the Middle Passage to become slaves in a foreign land,
leading to so-called freedom brought about by the U.S. Civil
War, followed by the short-lived Reconstruction period, then
Jim Crow segregation and sharecropping, and the great
migration of millions of Black people to the North.
This migration lead to the growth of the poverty-stricken,
overcrowded projects or "PJs." Abu-Jamal was a product of
the PJs in North Philadelphia. His mother, Edith Cook, was a
powerful influence on his life. Abu-Jamal soon became adept
in surviving as an African American male growing up in a
racist city like Philadelphia.
During this period, Philadelphia was ruled with an iron fist
by the ruthless, fascistic Mayor Frank Rizzo, or "Rizzio" as
he was called in the Black community. What set Abu-Jamal
apart from many in his neighborhood was that he became
revolutionary at a young age during the late 1960s and early
1970s.
IMPACT OF BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Bisson spends a lot of time explaining how the Black Panther
Party for Self-Defense affected Abu-Jamal's political and
personal life. The BPP was the organization that more than
any other captured the revolutionary spirit within the Black
liberation movement.
The BPP popularized the right to armed self-defense in
relation to the brutal occupation of the oppressed
communities by racist police. The BPP also extended a hand
of international proletarian solidarity to the liberation
struggles of workers and oppressed peoples around the world
fighting against U.S. imperialism.
The BPP also organized breakfast programs, free health-care
clinics and revolutionary schools in the northern projects
in an attempt to empower the politically and economically
disenfranchised Black masses.
Abu-Jamal became the minister of information of the BPP's
Philadelphia branch. He then became the target of intense
surveillance by Rizzo's cops and the Counter-Intelligence
Program, or Cointelpro, created by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's executive director, the ultra-racist J.
Edgar Hoover. Cointelpro was created during the anti-
communist McCarthyite witch hunt to destroy, undermine and
discredit any group or individual who promoted political
dissent and social revolt against U.S. foreign and domestic
policies.
Bisson describes the various attacks and raids on the
Panthers carried out by the Philadelphia cops on behalf of
the FBI. The killings, jailings and forced exiles of the
Panthers led to the group's demise, including the
Philadelphia branch's.
Abu-Jamal, who wrote regularly for the Black Panther Speaks
newspaper, then decided to become a professional journalist
to earn a living. This move in turn led to him becoming a
supporter of the MOVE organization, whose members have been
murdered, illegally imprisoned and ostracized by the
Philadelphia authorities since the 1970s.
SUPPORTER OF MOVE
Bisson explains how Abu-Jamal's association with this
majority Black communal group, along with his well-known
commentaries against police repression, led to his being
falsely accused of killing a white cop on Dec. 9, 1981. He
was railroaded to death row in 1982 after a sham of a trial.
In Chapter 19, Bisson describes "The Trial" in four
sentences--"We can be brief. The prosecution witnesses (even
those who changed their stories) were never challenged.
Mumia was not allowed to represent himself, and when he
insisted, he was barred from his own trial. Guilty." End of
chapter.
In Chapter 20, entitled "The Penalty Hearing," Bisson
writes, "We can be even briefer. Mumia's Black Panther
history was waved in the face of the jury like a bloody
shirt. Death." End of chapter.
"On a Move" is a book that should be studied in every high
school and every college across the country. Every library
should have it on its shelves. Bisson has made a great
contribution, by helping to demystify not only who Mumia Abu-
Jamal really is as an individual, but also how remaining a
revolutionary as he has for so many years under the most
repressive conditions can and does inspire others to join
the struggle for social change.
Contact www.leftbooks.com to order your copy today.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 1. maaliskuu 2001 13:18
Subject: [WW] Workers in Turkey fight economic catastrophe
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
As devaluation slashes wages
WORKERS IN TURKEY FIGHT ECONOMIC CATASTROPHE
By Deirdre Griswold
Workers in Turkey who just saw a third of their savings and
wages go up in smoke in a devaluation of the lira, the
country's currency, demonstrated against the International
Monetary Fund and the U.S. government on Feb. 27. Police
arrested at least 50 people at the nationwide protests,
which were led by the public-sector union KESK.
Small wonder that the workers directed their anger at the
IMF. Turkey, a nation of 65 million people and an important
U.S. military ally in the Middle East, has been following
the financial dictates of the world imperialist banks for
some time. Just this December, the IMF approved a
"disinflation" economic reform plan for Turkey that was
sweetened with a $7.5-billion loan package. In return, the
Turkish government was supposed to reduce inflation by
privatizing industries like communications and tightening
austerity measures.
Turkey's cooperation with the IMF and World Bank was going
so well that Euromoney magazine named Central Bank Gov. Gazi
Ercel "Central Banker of the Year" in 2000. Now Ercel has
been forced to resign, along with the Treasury minister, and
the IMF plan has failed spectacularly.
DIVISIONS WITHIN CAPITALIST GOVERNMENT
The turmoil began after a meeting on Feb. 19 of the National
Security Council, the body with the real power in Turkey.
The NSC is where the generals meet with the politicians to
decide policy. While Turkey has a parliamentary system that
lets its imperialist allies declare it a "democracy," the
Turkish bourgeoisie wants no one--least of all the workers'
movement--to forget that the military is ready to step in at
any time.
A dispute erupted at the NSC meeting between President Ahmed
Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit "in front of
the country's powerful military command," noted the Feb. 26
Wall Street Journal. Sezer had accused the government of
corruption, and Ecevit "stormed out of the meeting."
On hearing news of the struggle, the stock market took a
nosedive and overnight interest rates shot up to as high as
7,500 percent. The Turkish government had been scheduled to
make a multibillion-dollar domestic debt repayment on Feb.
20.
With the markets falling and interest rates rising, the
government was in a panic. It announced it would allow the
lira to float against other currencies--a violation of the
IMF plan. Within 24 hours, currency speculators had forced
down the value of the lira so far that one dollar bought
1,200,000 lira.
On Feb. 22, the government announced an official
devaluation. The money was pegged at two-thirds of its
former value. The economy is now expected to fall into a
recession.
TOUGH TIMES AHEAD
The devaluation of the Turkish currency means a steep
decline in the standard of living for the masses. They will
pay more for everything imported, since their currency will
be worth less in comparison with their trading partners.
Their products will also fetch a lower price on the
international market. Other things being equal, this could
stimulate Turkish exports and be welcome to the merchant
class.
However, the United States appears to be going into a
recession, and that may have a spiraling effect on other
countries. So even with cheaper goods to export, Turkey may
have a hard time finding markets.
Newspapers here like the Wall Street Journal and the New
York Times have paid a great deal of attention to Turkey in
this crisis compared to others. Much more than when Turkey
was hit by massive earthquakes that killed thousands.
The Western media barely covered the story of how the
Turkish government stormed the prisons last year and
murdered several dozen political prisoners already weakened
by a hunger strike. The ordeal of 800 Kurdish refugees
fleeing Turkey's long war against their nation--who were
stranded off the French coast when their boat ran aground--
was a sensation in the media, but only for a day or so.
By contrast, these organs of big business are very concerned
with the financial crisis. But they are not talking about
how the people living in Turkey will survive this financial
catastrophe. Instead, they are focused on two questions.
Might this crisis be like earlier ones in Thailand, Russia
and Brazil, and pull down other economies that are shaky?
Will it affect markets in the United States and other
centers of world finance?
Procter & Gamble blamed the Turkish crisis when its shares
dropped 5 percent on Feb. 26 after the company announced
lower earnings expectations for the second half of fiscal
2001. But market analysts pooh-poohed the claim. Roben
Farzad of the Wall Street Journal wrote on Feb. 27:
"Luckily, no one has given the idea of a Turkish contagion
serious consideration--yet."
As soon as the crisis broke out, both the IMF and the World
Bank sent emergency teams to Ankara to try to contain the
damage--unlike the lethargy of the "international
community," including the U.S. military based in Turkey,
after the earthquakes. What worried the bankers most was
that Turkey might default on its $110-billion foreign debt.
They were soon reassured. A headline in the Wall Street
Journal of Feb. 28 said that "Turkey Signals It Will Shift
Focus from Disinflation to Repaying Debt." This received
applause from the very IMF that had earlier been urging
Turkey to concentrate on lowering inflation.
BUSH AND O'NEILL GET THEIR MARCHING ORDERS
President George W. Bush phoned Ecevit soon after the crisis
began and pledged U.S. support--which in effect means IMF
support, since the U.S. contributes more than half of the
IMF's capital. This was a big switch for Bush, as the New
York Times pointed out on Feb. 23.
"The message of support from Washington was notable because
Mr. Bush, during the presidential campaign, expressed deep
reservations about the IMF's programs, and strongly
suggested that he would hesitate to bail out countries or
investors who found themselves caught in an economic
downturn.
"Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill has gone further, saying
in an interview that the 1998 bailout of Russia was 'crazy'
and adding that he did not understand why it would be
beneficial to intervene to stabilize a country's currency.
"But today, Mr. Bush and Mr. O'Neill received a quick lesson
in why politics, as much as economics, may drive such
decisions.
"Turkey is a NATO partner and allows its bases to be used by
American planes patrolling Iraq. It says it has been harmed
by the economic sanctions against Saddam Hussein, and Mr.
Bush is struggling to keep a coalition together that will
enforce such sanctions. Unrest in Turkey could imperil that
effort."
Nearly half of Turkey's borrowed money last year came from
German banks. While no one mentions it openly, the
competition between U.S. and German capital, which grows
more intense as the capitalist economies slow down, must be
a factor in the negotiations between Turkey, the IMF and the
World Bank. The IMF is more protective of U.S. finance
capital, while the World Bank is more an instrument of
European capital, dominated by German banks.
While the current crisis may have been sparked by a
political struggle centering on charges of corruption, that
is not the real cause of this catastrophe. Corruption can be
found in all capitalist governments, in good times and bad.
Rather, Turkey is a victim of the debt crisis created by
imperialist super-exploitation all over the Third World. The
imperialists encourage developing countries to take out
loans, promising them easy credit and a market for their
goods. But the mega-corporations' lock on the financial
arteries puts their currencies and labor at a disadvantage.
The debt burden becomes so great, and interest rates so
high, that only in a rapidly growing world economy can
poorer countries expect to sell enough goods abroad to pay
even just the service on the debt. Like poor farmers in the
U.S., or miners forced to buy from the company store, they
can never get far enough ahead to lower the debt burden.
When the inevitable capitalist downturn arrives, a full-
blown crisis follows in either the currency or financial
markets, or both.
This pattern is repeating itself in many countries around
the world. It is fueling not only anti-IMF and anti-U.S.
sentiment but a burgeoning class struggle by the workers and
poor against their own capitalist governments.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
From: "WW" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: torstai 1. maaliskuu 2001 13:20
Subject: [WW] Zapatistas march for Indigenous rights
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the March 8, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
Mexico
ZAPATISTAS MARCH FOR INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
By Bill Hackwell
Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico
Thousands of Zapatistas and supporters from Mexico's
Indigenous communities poured out of the highlands of
Chiapas and into San Cristobal de las Casas on Feb. 25 in a
send-off for the leaders of the Zapatista National
Liberation Army (EZLN).
Twenty-four EZLN commanders began an almost 2000-mile-long
march to Mexico City. The group, led by Subcommander Marcos,
planned to present the group's demands for democracy and
Indigenous rights to the new government of President Vicente
Fox.
The only agreement between the EZLN and the previous
government of Ernesto Zedillo was an accord on respecting
the autonomy of Indigenous people in Chiapas. It was never
enacted. The first priority of the Zapatista march is to see
this agreement fulfilled.
"We are the forgotten heart of the country, the very first
memory, the Black blood of the mountains of our history,"
Marcos declared in a departing speech.
A headline in Expresso, the biggest newspaper in Chiapas,
read "Thousands of Zapatistas inundate San Cristobal."
Wearing their trademark black masks and carrying banners,
the Zapatistas filled the open plaza in front of the
cathedral.
This was the same area they liberated in an uprising that
began on Jan. 1, 1994--the day that the NAFTA trade
agreement took effect. Although the Mexican army quickly
surrounded the group and Indigenous communities were
subjected to fierce repression, the 1994 uprising sparked
resistance across the country.
Dozens of other groups, like the People's Revolutionary
Army, took up arms. The Zapatista uprising also marked the
beginning of new confidence in the workers' movement,
evidenced by a growing number of strikes and organizing
campaigns.
This time the Zapatistas carried no weapons. There were no
police or army troops in sight.
This capital of the Mayan people of Mexico was once again,
for a night, Zapatista territory.
Vicente Fox has been trying to lure the Zapatistas to lay
down their arms and enter into a dialogue with the
government. He has tried to appear to take the high ground
by saying he welcomes the Zapatista leadership to Mexico
City and that he would risk the presidency to bring peace to
Chiapas.
Subcommander Marcos told the roaring crowd in the plaza that
he wanted to clarify that the Zapatistas are not negotiating
peace but rather dignity and justice. Many in the crowd wore
a white headband over their masks that read simply:
"Dignity."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
